GRUMPY RERUN BOOK REPORT

I think I might have reviewed this book previously, however, I just re-read the thing, liked it just as much as the first time, however, I must object to one thing;

The book jacket! Jacket designed by one Royce M. Becker. I wonder if that name is one of those industry names that appears occasionally when there have been legal disagreements and this is what gets printed to meet legal requirements for printed credit.

Shadow Music takes place somewhere in England between 1190 and 1217, during the life and reign of King John of Magna Carta fame. There were crusades going on, there were Barons, King John was at war with nearly EVERY one. This story is set mostly in Scotland.

My objection to the jacket is thus; look closely and you will see in the background a rather elaborate image of a castle with intricate towers and elaborate chimneys. There is a severe curly-cue cast iron gate (don't think the local black smith had time to hand forge such gates being busy making claymores, etc. ) and down in the right hand corner is a near silhouette of a couple, the man looks a bit like Fred Astaire and the lady could be a dead ringer for Ginger Rogers except they ain't dancing.

Now, I'm thinking it would be far more appropriate to see a sword or a lovely Scottish glen or a Highlander, not Fred and Ginger.

And then for some weird reason there is a crude hand lettered "4" right below "Garwood". I think who ever accepted real money for designing this jacket cover should cough up any and all dough for this inappropriate art work and apologize to the author and Ballantine books.

Could I have this job next time? I can jack better stuff off the net.

I GET TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT TODAY

Because I live in Oregon and we ALL VOTE BY MAIL. Isn't that cool? No standing in line at the polling places, no getting my registration challenged etc. Yeah, I like it. I can also happily continue to ignore the evening phone calls from political pollsters. Wawhoody!



This is a shot of my ballot, not bad. It lists all the political candidates from President on down to Mayor of Coquille. On the back are fifteen, count 'em 15 measures to vote on. FIVE of them are amendments to the State of Oregon's Constitution. Ahem,this is where I drag out my soap box, mount it and opine the following:

1) The Constitution is NO PLACE to put such items for voter consideration as lottery money, redistricting plans, property tax elections,etc. Items such as these should be considered ELSEWHERE within the laws of the State of Oregon...NOT THE CONSTITUTION.

2) The Constitution at the state level should not be modified unless it follows the amendment protocol at the NATIONAL level. (And we all remember how easily the Women's Rights Amendment fared.)

I'm done. Don't forget to vote!!!

Gas prices, remodeling and Happy Holly Days

Gas prices continue to plummet, how low can they go?



I peeked inside the walled off area this morning, yep that looks like demolition and lumber all righty.



This is our temporary nurses station in patient room 102. Patients ding the bell and then wait across the hall for someone to help them.



Tim harvested about a bushel of Holly from our tree so I could mail some to Desire Holm who moved to Barrow to work at good old Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital. She probably needs something shiny and green about now. I warned her about the sharp leaves.

More prices

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On my way to a strategic planning meeting, I drove by the local gas station. Prices have dropped to $3.46. We are still VERY proud of our gas, Regular was $3.17 at Creswell (this side of Roseburg).



This post modernism looking picture is actually a picture of the great humongous holly tree in our backyard. There are thousands of red berry's on the tree. The foliage is so thick that the grass does not grow much beneath the tree. All righty then, that works for me, cuts back on lawn mowing.

Brief update on the Strategic Planning meeting: The consulting group brought back their design team to show us two possible plans and two sites for the new hospital.

There was a two story and one story desigh both are about 40,000 square feet.

One site was in front of the present hospital, build one, tear down old one for parking.

The second site was to the north of the clinic, which is just down the hill from the current hospital. This would involve developing some steep gully type property, getting a street punched through by the county or city.

After MUCH discussion the group as a whole was leaning toward the two story building to be located north of the present clinic. One advantage would be that the old facility could still be used for some other purpose. One physician mentioned leasing the building to a long term care organization.

Estimated cost 20 million, HUD will finance 18.5 million, hospital supplies the rest.

All I know is that in each of the plans, medical records gets about 500 square feet. That is half of my downstairs at home. Well put that way, we would have plenty of room compared to where we are squashed into right now; a former patient room (150 sq fee) and half of PT across the hall.

falling leaves and falling prices

I stopped in at my favorite filling station to top off my tank and take a picture of the prices.



The lady doing the filling handed me the slip and apologised,she had been too busy to put the new prices up $3.56 !!! So I took a picture of the slip itself, you may have to squinch yer eyes to get it to focus or click to embigen.




I decided to make broasted potatoes, so I scrubbed up about six bakers, sliced them up, tossed them in a bowl with oil, garlic, salt, pepper and baked in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes,then turned down to 350 for another 20 minutes. Turned off oven and topped with shredded Parmesan cheese and left it in the oven to get all melty. This turned out pretty good.

I didn't take any pictures of fall foliage because we don't have much here. The trees are mostly fir and holly and the hard woods turn an ugly orange, no lovely aspen to speak of.

WARNING BOOK REPORT:

"The Captive Heart" by Bertrice Small. This is the latest historical set in 15th century Scotland. No time travel is involved at any point.

I quote directly from the blurb on the back cover:

The year is 1461, and the winds of war rage across England, uprooting Henry VI's court - including Alix Givet, the daughter of Queen Margaret's physician. Alix's plight becomes bleaker still when a Northumbrian baron gains her hand for his cruel son. Duty to her queen and to her sickly widowed father forces Alix into a loveless marriage. But when her husband unexpectedly dies, Alix once again flees -- this time to save herself. Escaping over the border into Scotland, she throws herself at the mercy of a dark and brooding laird, who -- if she can warm his cold heart - might provide the ever lasting love of her dreams.

Ms Small knows her history and weaves it well in her tales. There are always lush descriptions of clothing, food usually involving eggs coddled in Marsala and cream and a wheel of hard cheese. Don't forget the Ale. And there are sex scenes; but not in your face, relentless heaving, over done sex,this is, after all 1461. There are plenty of twists and turns in this book. My only gripe was the rather unecessary elimination of the one of the more charming characters. Really... couldn't there have been a less disastrous result from falling off a cliff held captive on a horse, couldn't the victim have bounced off the horse? And harking back to Mrs. Brownfield, my fifth grade teacher, I have identified the title of the book on page 190 (quickly rechecking, shoot it's NOT page 190 but it's around there somewhere). That was one of her criteria when doing a book report for both written and oral.

This actually changed Friday

But they were missing the "6".

Other happenings dullish at work. We have two remodeling projects coming up at the hospital; the nurses station and surgery. The nurses station was designed to hold four people maximum, however there are often six to eight nurses there at shift change, a CNA, and several doctors. They all want to work on the charts at the same time. There are several ratty blue cloth covered chairs that need to be replaced. So somehow it is going to become a tighter space in the same footprint and they lose their lockers and bathroom. Hmmmm, can't see anyone being happy over that one. Surgery is getting the flooring replaced, since there are two surgery suites,they will do them one at a time leaving the other set up for crash c-sections. I'll take pictures as the destruction begins, they are hoping to get it all done in less than two weeks. Good luck with that one.